International Crime Victim Survey ‘04/05: Polska na tle wybranych krajów Unii Europejskiej

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the phenomenon of victimization in Poland between 2004 and 2005 in comparison with other countries participating in the International Crime Victim Survey (IVCS) project, whose main objective is to report the results of an international crime survey. The basis of the author’s claims is a comparison of three aspects of attitudes towards crime from selected countries, consisting of an assessment of police work, penalisation, and the fear of crime. The author points out the weaknesses of the ICVS research,which prevent an effective comparison of the results. Among them he mentions the different quantitative composition of the countries which joined the project in a particular year, and the fact that the same countries did not participate in two consecutive editions. The author then compares the Polish results against 18 selected EU countries, explaining his decision by the desire to maintain territorial homogeneity. Andrzej Siemaszko uses graphs to illustrate the findings in relation to theft from cars and personal property, burglary, the threat of robbery, corruption, and the visibility of drug addiction. The text also discusses the causes of crime reporting. It compares the assessment of police work in the countries under study and the fear of crime in their inhabitants. Siemaszko also analyses the level of punitiveness of the inhabitants of selected EU countries, emphasising that it is highly varied, but unlike the fear of crime, strongly correlated with breaking the law. In conclusion, the author indicates the safest and the most dangerous countries according to the IVCS.